Existing projects in visualization-based interfaces (interfaces which enables navigation through visualization) for cultural collections usually focusses on making their content more accessible to specialists and the public.
Possibly one of the first attempts to explore new forms of knowledge discovery in cultural collections was SFMOMA ArtScope, developed by Stamen Design in 2007 (now decommissioned). The interface allows users to explore more than 6,000 artworks in a grid-based and zoomable visualization. Navigating the collection follows a visualization-based first paradigm which is mainly exploratory (although the interface enables navigation through keyword search, the visualization canvas is clearly protagonist). The artworks’ thumbnails are visually organized by when they were purchased by the museum. The user is able to pan the canvas by dragging it and the lens serves as a selection tool, which magnifies the selected work and reveals detailed information about the selected piece.
ArtScope is an attractive interface which offers the user an overview of the size and content of SFMOMA’s collection. However, the artworks in the canvas are only organized by time of acquisition, a not very informative feature for users (maybe just for the staff museum). Other dimensions (authorship, creation date, technique, subject, etc.) can’t either be filtered and visually organized in the structure of the canvas.
The video bellow illustrates the interface navigation: